MOAB – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar swooped through Western hot spots this week trying to forge compromises as a century-old struggle intensifies over protecting pristine public lands versus leaving them open to development.
Pressure to drill for oil and gas is mounting. A surge of proposals to protect millions of acres as wilderness or “national conservation areas” also is gaining momentum.
After 23 years and $2.1 billion, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is ready to be removed from the nation’s Superfund list of environmental disasters.
Environmental Protection Agency officials are transferring a final 2,500 acres at the 27-square-mile site to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This clears the way for the arsenal’s new incarnation as a national wildlife refuge.
U.S. taxpayers paid for the bulk of the cleanup — done by the Army and Shell Oil under a legal settlement.
For half a century, the arsenal at Denver’s northeast edge loomed as a secretive complex of more than 250 buildings with signs around it warning “Use of Deadly Force Authorized.” There, the Army made chemical weapons and later, Shell made pesticides.
Residential and commercial development gradually encroached on the site. Today, 47 bison roam, raptors circle and badgers burrow on recovering short-grass prairie 10 miles from downtown Denver.
PLATTEVILLE — Colorado’s wave of gas and oil drilling is resulting in spills at the rate of seven every five days — releasing more than 2 million gallons this year of diesel, oil, drilling wastewater and chemicals that contaminated land and water.
At least some environmental damage from the oil-and-gas boom is inevitable, industry leaders and state regulators say, with a record-high 45,793 wells and companies drilling about eight more a day.
But a Denver Post analysis finds state regulators rarely penalize companies responsible for spills.
This year, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has imposed fines for five spills that happened three or more years ago. The total penalties: $531,350.
State rules obligate regulators to take a collaborative approach, negotiating remedies when possible rather than cracking down. In fact, the COGCC recently declared four companies responsible for the largest number of spills to be “Outstanding Operators” and lauded them for environmental excellence.
Oil and gas companies have reported 343 new spills this year, bringing the total since August 2009 to more than 1,000 spills, state data show.
As mountain snow starts to melt, trickling toxic acid laced with dissolved metals — arsenic, cadmium, copper, zinc — is fouling Colorado watersheds.
Nobody dares try to stop it.
Among the casualties: Peru Creek east of the Keystone ski area has been pronounced “biologically dead.”
State environmental officials also have listed 32 sites along the Animas River in critical condition. Some headwaters of the Arkansas River, too, are “virtually devoid of any aquatic life.”
The source of the contamination is abandoned mines — about 500,000 across the West, at least 7,300 in Colorado. Federal authorities estimate that the headwaters of 40 percent of Western rivers are tainted with toxic discharge from abandoned mines.
Colorado Department of Natural Resources records show 450 abandoned mines are known to be leaking measurable toxins into watersheds. So far, 1,300 miles of streams have been impaired.
But as bad as the damage is, community watershed groups, mining companies and even state agencies contend they cannot embark on cleanups for fear of incurring legal liability.
Denver-area water providers are pressuring state mining regulators to force Cotter Corp. to clean up a defunct uranium mine contaminating groundwater and a creek that flows into a major reservoir.
The latest water-quality tests showed that Ralston Creek below Schwartzwalder mine carried as much as 390 parts per billion of uranium, which is 13 times higher than the 30 ppb health standard. Contamination of groundwater at the source — inside the mine — exceeded the standard by 1,000 times.
Drinking water remains safe, authorities say, because uranium is removed from Ralston Reservoir water by municipal water treatment plants.
A defunct uranium mine in Jefferson County is contaminating groundwater near a reservoir, but government regulators and mine executives have yet to settle on a plan for cleanup.
A Canadian company’s push to build the United States’ first new conventional uranium mill since the Cold War has cleared local hurdles — despite environmental concerns — and won wary high-level support. Many residents of the economically bereft western Colorado area around Nucla and Naturita (approximate population 700 each) now count on the Energy Fuels Inc. project to bring back Atomic Age prosperity. Beyond the mill, they envision uranium mining jobs as part of a national nuclear renaissance that could spur homebuilding, better schools, restaurants and recreational amenities. “Nothing’s going to happen without a mill,” said Mike Thompson, 25, board member of the Naturita-based Western Small Miners Association. “Right now, we can’t support 18- to 30-year-olds because we just don’t have the jobs.”
Sens. Mark Udall and John McCain strolled somberly through a meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park Monday inspecting beetle-killed pines, lamenting the damage of global warming and pledging their bipartisan support for nuclear power as part of the solution.
Many around Cañon City oppose processing uranium again.
While their plant officially remains an environmental disaster, owners of a Cañon City uranium mill are pursuing a plan to reopen for nuclear business by hauling 12.5 million tons of ore by train from a protected mountain in New Mexico to refurbished facilities along the Arkansas River. Cotter Corp. executives have informed state officials they will crush and chemically leach 500,000 tons of uranium per year for 25 years — starting as soon as 2014 — “dependent upon market forces.” Yet Cotter’s latest data indicate groundwater contamination from Cold War uranium-processing still is spreading unchecked toward Cañon City (pop. 15,850). And federal investigators still haven’t completed a required comprehensive look at whether contamination could be causing cancer and other health problems. Local leaders who long tolerated the contamination — it’s been 25 years since the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a Superfund cleanup — now oppose any project until the cleanup is done.
Rural counties struggle to respond to calls, and cleanup often is left to the polluters.
Hazardous-waste spills and discoveries reported to Colorado authorities nearly doubled over the past decade, from an average of 561 a year from 1998 to 2000 to an average of 1,035 from 2005 to 2007. Population growth, carelessness, and the boom in oil and gas drilling are largely to blame. Much of the increase comes from rural Colorado, where towns often lack equipment and training to deal with the growing number of incidents. Some count on volunteers, or Colorado State Patrol troopers, who respond as soon as possible to contain spills yet lack resources for actual cleanup.
A journalist and lawyer, Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. In his position as a staff writer for the Denver Post, he is focusing on environment-related news including water challenges, the oil and gas boom and wildfire.
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